#thepastryadventure March 2017 - The Pretzel
So, here it is. The 3rd challenge – the Pretzel!
The history? Believe it or not, according to research, the pretzel is not German! Dun dun dun!
These guys have made their way through history, culture and religion!
“Though the exact origins of the pretzel remain mysterious, legend has it that the story began around A.D. 610, when Italian monks presented their young students with treats of baked dough twisted in the shape of crossed arms - “pretiolas,” meaning “little rewards”. At the time, crossing one’s arms was the traditional posture for prayer. As the custom spread through medieval Europe, the pretzel’s three holes came to represent the Holy Trinity—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—and the twisty baked good became associated with good luck, long life and prosperity.”
The first pretzels were baked as a soft, squishy bread, like the soft pretzels of today. Some say they were originally called “bracellae,” the Latin term for “little arms,” from which Germans later derived the word “bretzel.”
There was even mention of those who made them in 1510, when Ottoman Turks attempted to invade Vienna, Austria. The pretzel then was created to show victory, as coat of arms.
The pretzel symbols - legend has it that in 1614 in Switzerland, royal couples used a pretzel in their wedding ceremonies, to seal the bond of matrimony, and that this may have led to the origin of the phrase “tying the knot.” In 17th-century Germany, children wore pretzel necklaces on New Year’s to symbolize good luck and prosperity for the coming year.
How did it make it to America? One rumor has it that the doughy knots came over on the Mayflower, and were used by the Pilgrims for trade with the Native Americans they met. German immigrants brought pretzels with them when they began settling in Pennsylvania around 1710.
In 1861, Julius Sturgis founded the first commercial pretzel bakery and claimed to have created the first hard pretzel!
Pretzels were known to be made by hand. But in 1935, the Reading Pretzel Machinery Company introduced the first automated pretzel maker, which allowed bakers to produce estimated 245 pretzels per minute, compared to the 40 per minute an individual worker could make by hand. Today, Pennsylvania remains the American pretzel-making capital, with 80% of pretzels made here!
@t.spn
http://www.history.com/news/hungry-history/the-pretzel-a-twisted-history
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2013/06/the-history-of-pretzels/
